Space Weather Laboratory

L'Ralph

Class:

Instrument

Status:

Operational

Organizations:

Launch Date:

October 2001

WEBSITE:

This instrument will investigate Jupiter’s Trojan asteroids, which are remnants from the early days of the solar system. The L’Ralph instrument suite will study this diverse group of bodies; Lucy will fly by six Trojans and one Main Belt asteroid — more than any other previous asteroid mission. L’Ralph will detect the Trojan asteroids’ chemical fingerprints. L’Ralph’s instrument suite contains the Multi-spectral Visible Imaging Camera (MVIC) and the Linear Etalon Imaging Spectral Array (LEISA), both of which are fed by the same optics, meaning that L’Ralph can observe both visible and infrared wavelengths.

Key Staff
    Photo of the Ralph Instrument